A recurring safety problem has been workers falling from the roofs of buildings which are under construction, such as roofing, or upon which other work is being performed. Often, these accidents occur when the workers are moving about and carrying materials back and forth, and it sometimes happens that a worker will simply back over the edge of the roof while not looking.
The magnitude of this hazard has drawn the attention of several regulatory bodies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the United States, and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health in Canada. As a result, some form of barrier is now required around roof edges where people will be working, and various attempts have been made to comply with this.
Current OSHA requirements call for the upper edge of such safety guard barriers to be positioned about 42 inches above the edge of the roof, and OSHA standards call for this barrier to be able to support a 200 pound static load in either outward or inward directions.
Attempts have been made in the past to solve this problem, but such past devices have either not been adjustable to the pitch of the roof, use a pitch adjustment which presents a potential point of failure, are difficult to set up and remove, or are overly complex.
There is a need for a portable roof guard rail support which meets OSHA requirements, is easy to set up and remove, is adjustable to the pitch of the roof, is solidly constructed with few points of failure, and is collapsible so as to be easily transportable between job sites.